In the beauty salon or the barber shop, customers are often fitted with a cape while their hair is done or cut. Typically these capes have string ties or Velcro(copyright) closures at the collar so they can be snugly secured around the neck of the customer. The Velcro(copyright) closures on such articles are particularly bad because hair becomes lodged in the hooks and loops of the Velcro(copyright) making the capes unsanitary for subsequent use. On the other hand the string tie type closures are unsatisfactory because they are not fully adjustable.
Such prior capes whether using the ties to close the cape around the neck or Velcro(copyright) strips to close the cape around the neck must be washed after each use to comply with health regulations which often results in the further matting of the hooks and loops of the Velcro(copyright) and damage to the string ties on the cape from multiple launderings.
According to this invention these problems can be avoided by incorporating flexible strips of magnetic material in the collar of the cape with one lapel of the cape having the north pole of a strip of magnetic material just under the outside surface of the cape lapel and the other lapel of the cape having the same pole of a separate strip of magnetic material disposed just under the outside surface of the cape lapel. With this arrangement the collar of the cape can be closed to the desired degree about the neck of the customer and snugly held by the interaction of the magnetic strips in the opposing lapels of the cape. Moreover, the novel cape is fully adjustable around the user""s neck and can be washed without problems experienced with the prior art capes using string ties or Velcro(copyright) closures.
Also it matters not which lapel of the cape is on top of the lapped lapels, as this closure will hold the lapels of the cape together no matter which lapel is used to lap the other if the poles of the magnetic material are arranged as described above.
Magnetic buttons such as disclosed in the prior art, see U.S. Pat. No. 6,226,842 issued to Wong, U.S. Pat. No. 4,736,949 issued to Marchesi and U.S. Pat. No. 4,924,559 issued to Marchesi, are not satisfactory as they cannot provide the unlimited adjustment that this novel invention provides. In addition by placing the magnetic strips under the cloth surfaces of the cape lapels, the cloth from opposite sides of the cape will be sandwiched between the strips providing a frictional engagement that prevents slippage between the strips. Magnetic buttons often use mechanical interlocks to avoid this weakness (slippage) of such magnetic buttons when they are engaged. Moreover such magnetic buttons are expensive and costly to incorporate into inexpensive capes of the type to which this invention applies.
Other advantages of the novel invention will be apparent from the description in and drawings of this specification.
A article with an adjustable magnetic collar closure includes a cloth portion having a collar formed therein with pockets formed in each end of the collar, a flexible magnetic strip inserted in one end of the pockets and a separate flexible magnetic strip inserted in the other end of the pocket whereby over lapping said magnetic strips inserted into the pockets of the collar will hold said collar snugly closed around the neck of a person using the article due to magnetic attraction between said strips. The article may include means for releaseably retaining the magnetic strips in the pockets whereby these strips can be remove when the cape is laundered, or closures for permanently retaining the magnetic strips in the pockets.